Aviation experts call for drones to be registered and insured to prevent serious accidents

NEW drone laws arrive in Australia next week, letting anyone fly some drones for profit. But experts say more rules are needed to prevent serious accidents.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

News Corp Australia NetworkSeptember 24, 20161:30am

Australia’s drone laws will change next week, letting more people fly them for profit. Photo: AFP / JOSH EDELSON.Source:AFP

ANYONE will be able to fly drones for profit in Australia from next week under a shake-up to aviation rules removing requirements for pilot licences.

But while industry experts say changes are overdue, they warn the new aviation laws will not address increasingly dangerous and illegal drone activity in Australia, and users should be forced to register and insure their drones as part of a wider air safety review.

The new laws follow a series of air accidents in Australia, including a drone that crashed into a car on the Sydney Harbour Bridge last month, another that fell from the sky during an Australian War Memorial ceremony in Canberra, and a drone that came within 50m of a rescue helicopter on the Gold Coast.

Civil Aviation and Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the new rules for drone use would come into effect next Thursday, and were designed to remove “red tape” introduced with drone laws in 2002.

The laws will allow anyone to fly a drone weighing less than 2kg for profit as long as they register with CASA at least five business days before their first flight, and agree to operate by existing safety rules.

Those rules include flying at least 30m away from people, avoiding populated areas, only flying during daylight hours, and flying drones at least 5.5km away from airports, aerodromes and helicopter landing sites.

Farmers will also be able to operate drones up to 25kg on their own properties.

Mr Gibson said removing “certification and licencing” for these drone users would save them $1500 in fees, and was designed to make the older laws “more flexible”.

“It will be useful for some people but it’s not a free-for-all for everyone,” he said.

“We concluded that the level of risk for drones less than 2kg is lower and can be managed through a notification system.”

But Mr Gibson said at least seven Australians had been caught flying drones illegally this year and fined between $900 and $9000. Identifying drone pilots responsible for accidents remained difficult, however.

“Most of the prosecutions have been because police have been able to find who has been flying the drone,” Mr Gibson said. “And quite a few people try to get their drone back.”

While commercial drone use was well regulated, he said, some hobbyist drone users ignored laws and many were unaware of air space, such as the helicopter tract near the southern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“You see a lot of drones doing things that are illegal,” Mr Stevens said.

“Personally, I think people should be linked to the drone they own in some way. In that incident we had on the Harbour Bridge a few weeks ago, if we can find the crashed drone we should be able to link it to the person flying it.”

Green & Associates lawyer Dominic Green said the new laws paved the way for a type of registration system for drones, and the government would be wise to add an insurance element to future drone laws.

“The playing field has changed in terms of what people can do with this technology and regulators will need to step in to do something about insurance in future, especially when it comes to autonomous drones,” he said.

CASA is currently planning a major overhaul of drone laws in Australia, but Mr Gibson said proposals were still “a few months” away.

CASA’S DRONE LAWS FROM SEPTEMBER 29

- Australians will no longer need an operator’s certificate and remote pilot’s licence to fly a drone under 2kg for profit.

- Those flying small drones commercially must register with CASA online five days before their first flight and re-register every two years.